Historians and philosophers agree that since the development of agriculture, human beings have had an effect on the natural habitat of many plant and animal species. As many as 6,000 species are disappearing each year from deforestation,a number grater than before man appeared on the planet. Each minute of the day, approximately 26 hectares of forest are cleared. As a result, thousand of species have been wiped out.

I will argue that people are A reason for extinction of animals, not THE reason for the extinction of animals.

Evidence:

(1-6) Other means of extinction includes:
1) Sudden or drastic climate change such as an ice age
2) Meteor impacts (like what happened to the Dinosaurs)
3) Volcanic eruptions wiping out surrounding plant life native only to regions
4) Volcanic eruptions world wide fundamentally changing the atmosphere
4) New diseases that can kill animals on their own
5) New invasive species that wipes out what other animals normally feed on or the animals themselves (predation)
6) Genetic pollutionhttp://www.uwec.edu...http://www.eoearth.org...

1.Ever since man came busting out of the last Ice Age 11,000 years ago, armed with sharpened sticks, traps, and snares, he has had a nasty habit of wreaking havoc on plants and animals. The first time he swept across North America, man wiped out saber-tooth cats, mastodons, mammoths, huge ground sloth, short-faced bears, and dire wolves.
2. Centuries later, when the British colonist came ashore in South Carolina, they found, according to one account, "endless Numbers of Panthers, Tygers, Wolves, and other Beast of Prey". Needless to say, the newcomers wasted little time in wasting them, too.
3. By the late nineteenth century, man's weapons of choice in his continuing war against nature had become more sophisticated. Today parking lots, pesticides, waste dumps, and industrial pollutants of all stripes are the new spears, though the victims remain the same- plants, animals, and their homes. Grasslands and wetlands are increasingly replaced by subdivisions and malls. Trees and lakes are poisoned by acid rain.
4.Since 1900s, Africa's wildlife population has declined by more than seventy percent as the human population has grown six fold.
5.In the early twentieth century, the earth was losing one species a year.Today, it's one species a day- 400 times the natural rate.

Reasons for voting decision: When debating against Imabench, it is always best to bring one's best game. Semantics matter, as was shown here. Imabench was never seriously challenged; there was simply no way out of the rhetorical choke-lock that was placed upon Pro at the outset.